Alicia Hernández

Nearly a year since the border was closed, Presidents Maduro and Santos said the first stage of a gradual reopening will begin on Saturday with pedestrians allowed to cross five frontier points during the day.

Venezuela's electoral authority announced the next stage of the effort to force a presidential recall referendum cannot start before October, which means the vote itself could not happen until late January.

President Nicolás Maduro dismissed the latest indictments, unsealed by a court in Brooklyn this week, as an attack by the US empire. He also promoted one of generals named to interior minister.

This month seven people died, and 37 were injured, in violent protests and looting related to desperation to obtain food, and bungled police efforts to control the situation.

At least one woman drowned recently trying to get to Colombia to buy medication, and many others are now locked in a constant and desperate search for supplies.

A national survey found 12 percent of Venezuelans skipped at least one meal a day last year and the economic situation has deteriorated since then. Last week a woman died from wounds she received when police shot into a food riot.

Activists say an anti-crime effort called the Operation to Liberate and Protect the People is actually a measure designed to prevent a social uprising in the face of an economic crisis so deep the sick are dying for want of basic care.

The time zone change in Venezuela is the latest in a litany of emergency measures ordered by President Nicolás Maduro to cope with an acute electricity shortage within a broader economic meltdown and a burgeoning political crisis.

President Nicolás Maduro has never been weaker, but if the opposition doesn't agree soon they may miss their opportunity to regain power.

Locals say the miners were killed two weeks ago by a local gang leader seeking to control gold, iron ore, and coltan mining in the Tumeremo region. The authorities were initially reluctant to admit that anything had happened.

The mosquito-borne virus appears to be spreading rapidly through Venezuela where chronic shortages of medication, repellent, and contraception, are making people particularly vulnerable to its potential risks.

President Nicolás Maduro announced the first hike in 18 years during a five hour televised address to the nation, but the price rise still means Venezuelans can fill their tanks for the price of a light breakfast.